ShadowRAM: June 21, 2004

Oracle's 4Q earnings call was as entertaining as ever. CEO Larry Ellison repeatedly stated that his apps business was growing faster than all competitors' in the past year. (Someone please check the water in Redwood Shores.)

But Goldman Sachs' Rick Sherlund drilled down. Almost apologetically, Sherlund cited his own figures showing SAP's apps up a not-so-shabby 17 percent in the trailing 12 months vs. a mere 5 percent for Oracle.

Said Ellison: "I had SAP new license growth as -3.4 percent so if you're right, then what I said earlier was incorrect."

Olympic fever is rising! Word from the left coast is that Ingram Micro's Kevin Murai carried the torch for a leg of its journey last week. Samsung was a sponsor of the relay and chose Murai to run 400 meters through Beverly Hills. Samsung also tapped Bruce Geier, president of solution provider Technology Integration Group for another leg.

July 1 could be a bad day for your Network Associates (McAfee) rep. Rumors of impending layoffs or even an outright buyout by Microsoft have resurfaced. McAfee has prettied itself up by offloading Sniffer and consolidating its antivirus line. Layoffs could be the final primp before a sale, wags say.

Oh, joy. Yet another entry on the endless blog-roll. This time it's Gary Reback, famed former Wilson Sonsini litigator, nemesis of Bill Gates, and Silicon Valley gadfly.

In his latest incarnation he's wielding the keyboard to chronicle the United States v. Oracle case in San Francisco on behalf of PeopleSoft. Those from the pre-Web day may remember Reback as the defender of Philippe Kahn's Borland International against big meanie Lotus. The purveyor of 1-2-3 spreadsheets had charged Paperback Software, then Mosaic, then Borland, with copyright infringement. The case wended its way to the Supreme Court, where the justices declined to hear it. That made Borland the de facto winner, but by that time, Microsoft Excel had kicked everyone else's butt, and no one cared anymore.

But back to blogs. RSS pioneer Dave Winer stirred the pot last week when he closed a few thousand blogs that had been hosted for free on Weblogs.com. Many of the blogerati cried foul. Some even likened the loss of their content to murder. Er um okay guys Some things are as true now as they've always been: You get what you pay for.

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